The Campus
- Was founded in 1876 at Boulder, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
- Offers 3,400 courses in about 150 fields of study.
- Offers 85 majors at the bachelor's level, 70 at the master's level and 50 at the doctoral level.
- Received $266.2 million in sponsored research awards for the 2007 fiscal year, the highest total in campus history. CU-Boulder's leading funding agencies for 2007 were NASA ($46.9 million), the National Science Foundation ($43.9 million), the Department of Health and Human Services ($40.3 million) and the Department of Commerce ($33.1 million).
- CU-Boulder ranks in the top five universities in the nation, not including military academies, for astronaut alumni who have flown in space with 17.
- Had a total endowment on Dec. 31, 2007, of approximately $366.7 million.
- Boasts notable alumni including Academy Award-winning actor and director Robert Redford, sports reporter Jim Gray, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White, Big Band trombonist Glenn Miller and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
- Has about 90 research centers, institutes and laboratories focusing on subjects from entrepreneurship to natural hazards. A complete list is available on the Web at www.colorado.edu/research/.
- Is one of 34 U.S. public research universities invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities.
- Is one of the largest employers in Boulder County, providing 6,902 full-time and part-time jobs in 2007-08, excluding student employees.
- Includes the CU Research Park with several tenants such as Quantum Corp., BEA Systems Inc., Montalvo Systems and CDM Optics Inc. and the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA). The Research Park also will be home to a planned $115 million biotechnology research and teaching facility as part of CU's Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology.
- Includes about 200 classic rural Italian-style buildings and complexes built of Colorado sandstone with red tile roofs.
- Includes the CU Research Park with several tenants such as Quantum Corp.; BEA Systems Inc.; Qwest; CDM Optics Inc.; and the University of Colorado's Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA).
- Was ranked fourth in a review of the 50 "most architecturally successful campuses in the country," in The Campus as a Work of Art by Thomas Gaines.
- Boulder is first among the 25 "smartest cities in America" for the second year in a row, according to Forbes. The magazine listed Boulder at the top of its list of smartest cities, based on data compiled from the largest metropolitan areas in the country that the company ranked based on percentage of population age 25 and older with at least a bachelor's degree.
- Is the first campus established in Colorado and of the three-campus University of Colorado
system, also including:
- University of Colorado Denver
- University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Includes nine colleges and schools:
Colleges
College of Architecture and Planning
Dean Mark Gelernter
(Boulder campus has undergraduate degree program only.)
College of Arts and Sciences
Dean Todd Gleeson
Leeds School of Business
Dean Dennis A. Ahlburg
College of Engineering and Applied Science
Dean Robert H. Davis
College of Music
Dean Daniel Sher
Schools
Graduate School
Dean Stein Sture
School of Education
Dean Lorrie Shepard
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Dean Paul Voakes
School of Law
Dean David Getches
Night and summer courses:
Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies
Dean Anne Heinz
Summer Session
Director Carol Drake
Libraries
Dean James F. Williams II- Has the largest library collection in the Rocky Mountain region. Is 41st among the 125 largest North American research libraries, with more than 11 million books, periodicals and government publications available in Norlin Library and the William M. White Business, Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences, Gemmill Engineering, Oliver C. Lester Math/Physics and Howard B. Waltz Music branch libraries.
- Norlin Library includes distinct libraries on art and architecture, East Asia and science; archives and papers in the areas of Western Americana, politics, labor, environmentalism and peace and justice; special collections of manuscripts dating from 2000 B.C. to the present; and a rare book collection concentrated in English and American literature.
- Chinook on the Web at libraries.colorado.edu provides access to the university's collection, the holdings of most Colorado libraries and many library systems nationwide, periodical and information databases and many other electronic resources.
- More than 100 highly-trained staff and professional librarians provide on-site, e-mail and chat reference, classroom instruction and computer, audiovisual, collection development, interlibrary loan, reserve, circulation, acquisition preservation, cataloging and metadata services. Exhibits, art shows and events are scheduled year round.
CU-Boulder is home to one of the most extensive
Glenn Miller archives in the world. In 2007 CU-Boulder's
archive of the big band-era trombonist added a new
donation from an English estate, one of the finest
private Glenn Miller collections known.
In March 2007, CU-Boulder joined the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory and two local universities in establishing
the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels.
Known
as C2B2, its mission is to become the world's leading
center for research, education and innovation involving
integration of renewable energy sources into the
chemical and fuels industry.
CU-Boulder is finalizing its landmark strategic
plan following a series of community dialogues like
the one featured here on the Boulder campus from
May 2007. Titled Flagship 2030: Serving Colorado,
Engaged in the World, the plan outlines how CU will
maintain its competitiveness in the near term while
transforming to meet Colorado's needs as the state's
flagship higher education institution in the year
2030. The plan's centerpiece is 10 "flagship" initiatives
touching on such areas as creating a three-semester
academic year, instituting customized learning and
multiple-degree tracks and fostering multi-year learning
communities for students.
Two graduate specialty programs were ranked in the
top 10 in the nation and another four in the top
20 in U.S. News & World Report's 2008 America's
Best Graduate Schools issue. Leading the group was
environmental law (4th), followed by physical chemistry
(10th), business entrepreneurship (13th), aerospace
engineering (16th), geology (18th) and chemical engineering
(19th).
CU-Boulder physics doctoral student Michael Thorpe
(above) holds a detection chamber for a new
ultrafast laser apparatus developed by a JILA team
and led by researcher Jun Ye. The laser device can
help researchers identify faint human-breath molecules
that may be biomarkers for disease. Ye (inset) also
leads a team that recently developed a new atomic
clock accurate to within 1 second over 200 million
years.
CU-Boulder student Ben Safdi received three prestigious
awards in 2007-08: the Churchill Scholarship, which
provides university and college fees of $25,000 plus
other expenses to Churchill College, the University
of Cambridge; the Goldwater Scholarship of $7,500
per year; and the $10,000 Astronaut Foundation Scholarship.
The engineering physics and applied math major has
received several other CU-Boulder awards and has
been a co-author on two scientific papers. Safdi
is pictured with CU alumnus and astronaut Scott Carpenter
in 2007 after receiving the Astronaut Foundation
Scholarship.
Each semester, about 60 undergraduate "learning
assistants" are working with their professors
to improve introductory math and science classes
through a program called CUTeach. The program also
strives to recruit and train future K-12 science
teachers.
CU-Boulder's Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Program gives undergraduates the opportunity to conduct
real-world research at a major university. Since
its inception in 1986, UROP has provided more than
$5 million to some 6,000 undergraduates for research
and creative work.
CU-Boulder is the only research institution in the
world to have designed and built space instruments
for NASA that have been launched to every planet
in the solar system.
One of seven scientific instruments riding aboard
the MESSENGER spacecraft — which made a flyby of
Mercury last January — was built by CU-Boulder's
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Called
MASCS, the instrument is measuring Mercury's surface
and atmosphere to help scientists determine the distribution
and abundance of the planet's minerals and gases.
LASP Director Dan Baker, right, said the project
will provide "a field day for students," as
abundant data pours back to Earth via MESSENGER.
Scientists from CU-Boulder's National Snow and Ice
Data Center reported in September 2007 that the extent
of Arctic sea ice recorded in that month shattered
all previous lows since satellite record-keeping
began nearly 30 years ago.
Several CU-Boulder research faculty from the National
Snow and Ice Data Center shared the 2007 Nobel Peace
Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for their
contributions to the international report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The CU-Boulder
researchers, including Tingjun Zhang who was "chapter
leader" for a section of the report on permafrost,
joined co-authors from around the world on the groundbreaking
report.
With the help of a new CU-Boulder invention, corn
and potato crops may soon provide information to
farmers about when they need water and how much should
be delivered. The technology, based largely on a
doctoral thesis by CU-Boulder Research Associate
Hans-Dieter Seelig, includes a tiny sensor that can
be clipped to plant leaves to measure water deficiency
and leaf stress.
Associate Professor Stephen Yeaple of CU-Boulder's
economics department received the Bhagwati Award
in 2007 for the best article published in the Journal
of International Economics, considered the leading
journal in the field. The award is given every other
year.
Professor Richard Wobbekind presents the Colorado
Business Economic Outlook forum annually in December.
Delivered by faculty from the CU-Boulder Leeds School
of Business, the forum summarizes the overall state
of Colorado's economy and details 13 distinct economic
sectors.
The TREP Café in the business school's newly renovated
and expanded Koelbel Building is student-owned and
operated, giving CU-Boulder students an opportunity
to learn how to run a business. While the cafe isn't
yet profitable, the long-term goal is to put future
earnings back into the Leeds School of Business to
fund entrepreneurship scholarships and specific student
programs and events.
The popular outreach series CU Wizards features
astronomy,
chemistry and physics professors, and focuses on
basic scientific
principles to educate and entertain students of all
ages. Wizards shows are seen by hundreds of school-age
children annually from September through May. Distinguished
Professor Margaret Murnane and Professor Henry Kapteyn,
both of physics, demonstrated how lasers work in
a 2007 Wizards show.
CU-Boulder faculty, staff and students continue
to sign up for a wireless text-messaging service
enabling campus officials to notify them swiftly
via mobile phone in case of a campus emergency. Introduced
in fall 2007, the Short Message Service was one of
several new or improved programs implemented to fine-tune
CU-Boulder's emergency response and communication
programs. As of spring 2008, more than 11,000 faculty,
staff and students have signed up for the service.
Wireless Internet access is available in nearly
all
classrooms and academic buildings, and most administrative
buildings on campus. All campus residence hall rooms
are equipped with Ethernet connections and most also
have wireless access. A list of buildings with wireless
coverage is available here.
In 2006 the CU-Boulder ski team won the NCAA National
Collegiate Skiing Championship for the 17th time.
Overall, CU-Boulder has won 22 national championships,
including four in cross country and one in football.
